Sony KDL-55XBR8

LCD TV Buying Guide Comments

CEDIA Update: At CEDIA 2008 Sony introduced its new premium XBR8 line of LCD TVs. The KDL-55XBR8 will ship in October of 2008 and includes 1M:1 dynamic contrast ratio, Sony's Bravia 2 engine with 120Hz processing, and an optional colors for the speaker grill. The most important advancement though, is Sony's new Triluminous (RGB) LED backlight for this LCD television. This advancement obviously enables the 1M:1 contrast and according to Sony officials, a much wider color range than CCFL or white LED (with color wheels) backlighting. It was a pretty impressive looking display and we imagine the price will reflect this.

Moving on up to the very top of Sony's line offering for 2008 is the KDL-55XBR8 Bravia. I'm looking forward to a quick glance at the scary price this display will demand. In addition to many of the standout features present on the XBR5, XBR6 and XBR7 the KDL-46XBR8 has a local dimming feature for improved contrast in “localized” areas of the screen in order to enhance contrast in some areas while leaving it as is in others. This feature will be interesting to test. Another large step up feature of this LCD is LED (light emitting diode) backlighting (rather than the standard fluorescent style bulbs). This will drastically improve the brightness and thus the contrast of the LCD over other models. Sony calls this specification TRILUMINOS RGB LED because it contains all three color LEDs. Also present in the KDL-46XBR8 are the DLNA compliance feature for more natural color rendition, and of course the ubiquitous specification for all new Sony LCDs – the ever present optional colored speaker grille.

So this new Bravia LCD has it all in 120Hz refresh rate, DLNA compliance, Sony's enhanced user interface, 4 HDMI inputs, and these new and improved features for contrast, LED backlighting, and the new Bravia Engine 2. Now the price tag please...